trying to match resolution on a dual monitor set up

Here is what I amd looking at, I will post the specs because this is a friends computer:

HP Pavilion p6313w
Athlonll X2 215 (R) 2.7 GHz (65W)
NVIDIA GeForce 9100 (integrated)
5 GB Ram
640 GB SATA 3G HD
HP 2159m 21.5" LCD wide-screen monitor
19" polaroid tv/monitor

Here is problem I am running into, I have the HP monitor plugged into the DVI port and the polaroid plugged into the VGA port. I went into the displays menu and chose "duplicate these displays" which is what he needed to do.

Now what I have is the polaroid is too big to fit the screen (Icons are huge and the desktop spills off the screen), and the hp monitor doesn't fill the screen. I could not locate a driver for the polaroid monitor (according to the site it should not need one) and it is seen as a plug and play monitor. Any thoughts as a way to get the resolutions right per monitor while keeping it duplicated? I can fix it if I extend the desktop, but this defeats the purpose for him. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!

Geeve

Try setting the polaroid as the primary monitor in extension mode and then mirror it.

To get round it not filling the screen you're going to have to fiddle with Nvidia Control Panel.

I think there are also some options in NCP for TV safe area which may work if it's the other way round.

Oli

One thing to remember is that without using third party software, the duplicated desktop means both displays are using the same resolution, max resolution being the smaller one from max resolutions on used two displays. For instance, if display one has max resolution 1920 * 1200 and display two 1650 * 1080, the max resolution when duplicated is 1650 * 1080.

Kari

Thank you both! I guess the next question is what kind of third party software is available? I don't think he would want to sacrafice the large monitor to switch them around. Basically the HP sits in the control room of the recording studio and the smaller (polaroid) sits in the vocal booth (to display lyrics and tracking, that are seen in the control room by us) Just wondering :)

Geeve

I might have promised too much ... It looks there's no software available to do this. I thought Display Fusion could manage this, but I was wrong.

It seems to be that the only possibility is to use that same resolution on both displays.

Kari

Right on Kari! Thanks anyway. I will play around with it and do some more searching.

Thanks

Geeve

Edit: I am going to try the scaling feature in the nvidea control panel and will report back. It appears that what I am trying to do is not possible as there are alot of folk trying to do it and are running into a wall on it, because it does as stated and picks the maxt res of the smallest. however some are saying the scaling feature is working for them. We shall see!

geeve420 said:

Right on Kari! Thanks anyway. I will play around with it and do some more searching.

Thanks

Geeve

Edit: I am going to try the scaling feature in the nvidea control panel and will report back. It appears that what I am trying to do is not possible as there are alot of folk trying to do it and are running into a wall on it, because it does as stated and picks the maxt res of the smallest. however some are saying the scaling feature is working for them. We shall see!

Mirroring isn't an exact science you really need 2 displays of the same res for it to work properly but I think NCP will be the next best and I wish you luck.

Oli

osholt said:

geeve420 said:

Right on Kari! Thanks anyway. I will play around with it and do some more searching.

Thanks

Geeve

Edit: I am going to try the scaling feature in the nvidea control panel and will report back. It appears that what I am trying to do is not possible as there are alot of folk trying to do it and are running into a wall on it, because it does as stated and picks the maxt res of the smallest. however some are saying the scaling feature is working for them. We shall see!

Mirroring isn't an exact science you really need 2 displays of the same res for it to work properly but I think NCP will be the next best and I wish you luck.

Oli

Thanks Oli!! Hopefully tonight I can report positively back !